


Shine Like Rainbows

by nhpw



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Humor, Homophobia, J2 are BFFs, Jared ships Cockles, M/M, Polyamory, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5757184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhpw/pseuds/nhpw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JaxCon 2016, following the J2 panel. Jensen's not happy about Jared's comment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shine Like Rainbows

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just gonna say it: A LOT of Cockles came out of JaxCon '16. 
> 
> But most of it came from Jared Padalecki.
> 
> This fic explores the "taste the rainbow" comment that he dropped on Jensen twice - once in reference to Dean and Castiel, and once in the following exchange:
> 
> Jared: I like the season where I met my wife.  
> Jensen: I also like the season where I met Jared's wife.  
> Jared: Hey, isn't that the season you met Misha?  
> Jensen: ...  
> Jared: Taste the rainbow.
> 
> This little ficlet came after considerable thought about Jensen's home residence in Texas, where "traditional marriage" and conservative views rule the roost. It's short, and a tad angsty, with cursing and the usual "boys" humor thrown in. And a Cockles hug, just because.

“I’m gonna kill you.” 

The door to the green room has barely slammed behind Jared before the words are out of Jensen’s mouth. As it is, he can’t be sure whether any fans passing by the room might have heard him, but he’s too steamed to care.

Jared just laughs and throws his arms out to the sides as he turns to face his friend. “What?”

“I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to bring you back to life, and then I’m going to kill you again.” He shoots the younger man a look to impart that he’s absolutely not kidding before turning away without another word and rustling in the mini-fridge for a bottle of water.

“Trouble in paradise, boys?” Fucking  _ Mark _ is there, and Jensen doesn’t have an ounce of patience right then to explain it. As it is, Mark doesn’t have all the facts - Jared does, and Misha of course, and their wives, but that’s it. That’s  _ supposed to be _ it. That was the deal. Fucking Jared.

“He knows what he did,” Jensen grits out, shooting another glare at Jared. “There’s supposed to be cake. Where’s the fucking cake?”

“Here.” Jared dishes up a piece and puts it on a paper plate, handing it to his friend as an a peace offering. “Look, I’m sorry, all right? I don’t know what happened. It just slipped out.”

“Twice.”

“Twice,” Jared amended carefully, “Once for Destiel, and once for Cockles. Or JenMish.” In spite of the tension in the room, he tilts his head to the side, brow furrowed in consideration. “It depends on who you ask, I think.”

“SHUT your FACE, Padalecki.”

“I feel as though I missed something.”

“Probably the only fucking person on the whole fucking planet at that, Mark. It’ll be all over the Internet soon enough, no worries, you can watch it on YouTube. Jared and his big moose mouth fucking outed me in front of all of Jacksonville!”

“Dude, have you  _ met _ you?” The room is quiet for just a beat following the new voice - it’s Rich, and he saddles up beside Jensen, grabbing a piece of cake and slinging an arm around him. “Better yet, have you met  _ Misha _ ? I mean. Of course you have, considering you can’t go five minutes in a panel without mentioning the guy. Jensen, face it. You guys have zero secrets that the fans don’t already suspect. Also, sidebar, Jared, did you just say  _ Destiel _ ?”

Jared goes abashed at that for the first time since entering the greenroom. “The, uh. The fans. They say that stuff a lot. Knowing what I know, it’s sort of rubbing off I guess.” He shrugs sheepishly.

“J-Pad, I am so embarrassed for you right now.”

“The best part about this argument,” Mark intones, stepping up to pat Jensen’s shoulder on the opposite side from Rich, “is how you tried to get Jared to shut up, like you think I didn’t already know.”

“You  _ knew _ ?”

“ _ Everyone _ knows, my dear, sweet, naive boy. Because the two of you can’t keep your hands off each other when you’re together, and you can’t keep your mouths shut about each other when you’re apart. You might as well out yourselves and enjoy the ride.”

“No.”

“And why ever not?”

“It’s not like…” Jensen sets down his cake - fucking conversation taking a fucking somber turn and now he can’t even fucking eat. He rakes his palms over his face, wiping away the sweat that’s still there even after a towel right off the stage, and looks at Jared again, less angry and a lot more sincere. “How do we even begin to explain this? How  _ would  _ we? Forget the fans, for just one damn second, to hell with their speculation and what they would do if they found out it’s real. What about everyone else? The decision to be out… it affects more than me. More than Misha. It’s our wives, it’s our jobs, it’s whatever we’re going to do when this carousel stops spinning. Hell, it’s my home, Jare. We live in Texas. I mean, sure, it’s Austin, but it’s still Texas, man. Not exactly the most homo-friendly state to begin with, huh?”

“I guess I…”

“And that’s before you consider that what we got… it’s complicated. You know that. Sure, I love the hell out of Misha. But we’re not gay, not exactly. We’re poly. That’s different.  _ We’re  _ different. And in Cali, where Misha lives, he’s fine, being out and proud and hell, his wife wrote a fucking book on the subject so it’s no secret. Me… in Texas… you  _ know  _ how it is, Jared. You-- you know what I’m risking once I’m out. Hell, you know it’s a risk to have  _ Dean _ out. I can’t-- in the real world, I can’t. Not yet. Let them guess, OK? Let them have their fangirl fantasies, but don’t-- don’t do that shit.”

By the time he finishes, the room is dead silent - four men, all standing with their cake in various stages of consumption, three with eyes wide in shock, and one with a tear leaking out down his cheek.

“Great. Now I’m fucking crying in the middle of a con.”

“I’m, uh. I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

Jared grabs a nearby chair and sits backward on it, facing his longtime friend and imploring him with his eyes. “No, I-- I’m really sorry. You’re right. I didn’t think. I was hyped on the crowd and the fans and the… I shouldn’t have joked about it, not even a little.”

“Our fans notice things, you’re right about that. They’re not likely to let this one go.”

“Then we just don’t talk about it.”

“Are we allowed to do that?”

“Pretty sure you rock stars are allowed to do whatever you want.” Mark’s reply is quiet and careful, the way Mark tends to always be, but heavy with compassion. He pats them each on a shoulder and walks away.

“It’d be great if you guys could keep what happened in here -- you know. In here.” Jensen sniffles and stands up, and Jared mirrors his actions, meeting him in a tight hug.

“We good?”

“Yeah, we’re good. I uh. Can y’all do me a favor, find someone to go find Misha? PR’s gonna be all over that panel, and he deserves a warning.”

“I’m sure you two will get a nice long sit-down with the execs,” Rich responds. “Might as well play it up. But I’ll wrangle him for you, yeah.” With that he’s gone, and Jensen returns to his cake.

“Everybody knows, huh?”

Jared shrugs and takes a bite of his own piece of cake. “Everybody who matters. It’s not like you two are-- you jumped him in the hotel hallway, J. Nobody missed that.”

Jensen is suddenly mock-indignent. “I tripped him.”

Jared flat-out laughs at that - laughs so hard his stomach hurts and he loses the ability to breathe, and finally falls out of his chair. And that’s how Misha finds them - Jared sprawled like a greyhound puppy on the floor, all long limbs and big smiles, and Jensen looking down at him like he’s sure Jared has lost his mind.

When the door is closed, Misha’s in Jensen’s arms, and Jared’s looking up at them from his sprawled position on the floor. He watches with a small smile and twinkling eyes as Jensen pulls Misha close, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. They fold into each other, and it’s a remarkable sight to behold - so much trust there, and a level of love Jared doesn’t see when he looks at these men - a look he only sees when he looks at his wife.

But, “You know, if I can see it when you’re together, I’m not the only one,” he sees fit to offer. “I said what I said and I’m sorry, I’d take it back if I could, but - you gotta stop doing that. It’s why they won’t let you panel together this run. You don’t want it out, I got both your backs but - you gotta chill out. Seriously.”

They don’t move, but Misha does open his eyes, looking down at Jared with the side of his head pressed firmly against Jensen’s chest. “ _ Taste the rainbow _ ?” he challenges, both eyebrows arching up. “Really?”

“Wow, word travels fast.”

“I’m really, really good at Twitter.” After a beat, though, he’s smiling with one side of his mouth, and then he pulls away from Jensen to offer a hand to Jared so he can get up off the floor. As he does, he shares a conspiratorial smile and wink with the youngest man in the room.

“Dude, what?”

“It was clever.” His voice sounds almost congratulatory, and he throws a look at Jensen. “I mean, there are a lot of things you could’ve said, and you said that. Really, that can be twisted a lot of ways, I wouldn’t worry about it. And chances are after the new episode airs in a few days, the fans will be more interested in Destiel than you two knuckleheads.”

“Oh for the love of -- you too?” Jensen throws his hands up. “Can we-- I’m sure there’s somewhere else we’re supposed to be, talking about -- I don’t know.  _ Anything  _ else.”

“Photo ops,” a volunteer confirms, walking into the room at a perfectly opportune time to have missed absolutely everything. “All four of you, let’s go.” She’s rattling off instructions and checking for wardrobe malfunctions. “Good, good, good, aaaaand good. OK. Let’s go.”

Jensen plasters a smile on his face, and flashes it to Jared with a shoulder-pat of sincerity, before turning 90 degrees to wink at Misha.

Playing in public with Misha is fun.

Maybe some day, they’ll be able to be more free about it, but for now, they’ll take what they can get.

**Author's Note:**

> "Poly" if you're unfamiliar, is short for polyamory, which is not the same as being gay. The literal translation is "many loves." Partners may be male or female.
> 
> And Misha's wife really did write a book on threesomes. You can get it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Threesome-Handbook-Practical-SLEEPING/dp/1568583338 - you're welcome!


End file.
